Alabama State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey listens during the Alabama State Board of Education’s regular meeting on February 9, 2023 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
State Superintendent Eric Mackey said Tuesday that the Alabama State Department of Education was getting “more and more reports” each day about last month’s data breach at the department.
The State Department of Education had a data breach in June through a denial of service attack. Students and employees may have been impacted, but Mackey had said at a news conference last week they were still evaluating what data may have been taken.
Mackey said they have “learned a lot of very specific technical things that I can’t really get into” and are still working with partners. He said that they have attempts to hack into their systems daily and a hacker was able to get into a vulnerability that they’ve identified and closed.
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He said they are continuing to build new systems in.
“So we think that even as we build stronger walls to keep them out, we feel really good about where we are now, but we know that in time, they will also build stronger hacks,” he said. “And so it’s a continuing cycle. Unfortunately, we in public service are seeing it.”
He said that retirees’ accounts were not impacted because it was separate from the Retirement Systems of Alabama. He also said that data from people who applied to work at the department but were never hired were stored separately.
The superintendent, as a precaution, teachers, anyone who has worked for the state or local education agencies and parents should monitor their credit information.
Mackey did not provide a definitive yes or no answer in response to a question about whether or not the department would assist in credit monitoring.
“We don’t have any details right now, though, about what will happen going forward,” he said.
He said more information will be posted at alabamaachieves.org/databreach.
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